Chapter 51
Timeless Stillness
Asher stepped out of the shield and into the grassless hillside overlooking the ravine where the battle was still in full swing. Over and over, the soldiers seemed to appear from 'nowhere', rushing from the other side of the hill and supplanting the falling lines in a seemingly perfect way. He continued to activate spells automatically and buff randomly, too focused on simply observing the battle itself.
He sighed, still lambasted by the sheer scale; few, if any things, on Earth, ever approached this--perhaps watching a skyscraper's demolition came somewhat close, in a sense at least. The world paused, and there appeared three options once again. Nothing had changed, it seemed--whether he swung the blade or others did so for him, the cornerstone of everything was gradually empowering his chances through choices.
Stirring Soul [Rare]
Effect: All of your soldiers within a 3-mile radius have a 13% chance of dealing an extra 50% damage with each strike. Those strikes have a 3% chance to revitalize them, replenishing 70% of their Max Health. The effect is passively persistent.
Level: 1/1
Lord’s Roar [Epic]
Effect: Roar to inspire your soldiers, increasing their stats massively for a short duration and making them immune to the next instance of magic damage.
Stat Increase: 60% to Primary Stats / 100% to Secondary Stats
Duration: 4 seconds / 6 seconds for Magic Immunity effect
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Level: 1/3
Note: there is no hard cap on the number of soldiers you can empower, but the soldiers must physically hear your roar in order to be empowered.
General’s Mettle [Rare]
Effect: Passively increase the defense of ALL soldiers in your army by 2%.
Level: 1/5
Asher mulled over the choice for a moment before settling on the General’s Mettle. Increasing the defense of over three million soldiers was simply unparalleled, even if the individual increase was somewhat underwhelming. The other two options were simply too conditional, especially the Roar as he hardly knew whether his actual ability to scream would be boosted or not. If it were not, he’d literally have to stand in the grit of it all for anyone to hear him, and that was simply too risky.
The world unpaused and the battle resumed, the clanking of metals overpowering. He was still attacked, rather frequently, but would either just soak it up directly or dodge, and would even occasionally be helped by a platoon of soldiers. Overall, the Ring made the entire ordeal just a tiny bit underwhelming. Even the most 'overpowering' spells that seemed to blind the world for a moment 'only' did 70 or so damage. While that would effectively end him without the Ring, with it, so long as he didn't sustain too many of those hits, it was possible to just take them head-on and not panic.
On the next Level-up, he chose General’s Mettle once again as it was competing with a passive increase to his Health and Damage which, for all intents and purposes, were somewhat worthless. Though he shared a percentage of his stats with the entire army, taking the 'Common' variations of those choices when a better option was present simply wasn't viable.
General’s Mettle increased the defense by a further 2%, as he suspected it would, and would likely cap out at 10%. However, even with that, nothing truly changed--it was as though there was such a complex knot tying up the battlefield that there was no power, heavenly or earthly, that could untangle it. The world breathed and lived as it did before, an uneven cascade of death and destruction.
All these people, young and old, were dying so rapidly and violently that Asher was certain there would be a breakpoint, and those who ought to replace them would turn around and run. But... they never did. They pressed on, each fighting the other to be the one to step forward into what felt like a certain death.
In part inspirational and in part disruptively unsympathetic, Asher chose to ignore it. It was not for him to understand as he did not belong in this world and especially so within this battle--what they fought for wasn’t a piece of land, wasn’t just the right to the throne. It was for a higher purpose, and he was ill-equipped to chide that purpose. Rather, it was best to be silent as a passenger of this realm, like a leaf carried onward by the invisible wind. He’d be there momentarily and vanish, and these people, whether living still or just recreations of history, would live on, embedded in the new reality they would have created.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Luminary Fervor [Rare]
Effect: Increase the stats of ALL your soldiers by 15% from midnight until sunrise. Stacks with other night-empowering abilities.
Level: 1/1
Valorous Benediction [Rare]
Effect: Target a soldier of your choice, temporarily granting them a boost of damage and defense. The duration is extended by 3 seconds for every kill. They have a further 8% chance of unleashing a Holy Judgment on the foes around them.
Damage Boost: 20%
Defense Boost: 15%
Duration: 6s (can be extended up to 35 seconds)
Cooldown: 28 seconds (begins as soon as you cast the spell)
Level: 1/2
Empyreal Echo [Legendary]
Effect: ALL soldiers in your army gain a 3% chance to cast an Echo of their ability whenever they use it. The echo will flare out at 80% of the effectiveness but cost no resources. Every echo has half the chance to echo as well off of the previous one. Cannot echo abilities whose rank exceeds Legendary. Instead, those abilities will have their resource consumption lowered by 20%.
Level: 1/1
Description: An ancient, lost magic of the Last Empyrean who is said to have commanded armies that collapsed the Firmament. It is said that the echoes of magic were so brilliant they caused the skies to weep.
Once again, all three options were quite conditional--though the Luminary Fervor seemed like the least random one, Asher wasn’t certain whether the fighting spilled into the night or whether they broke ranks and retreated. Had he known he would have been offered a choice, he would have asked, but it was too late now. In fact, he didn’t even know whether the nights were long or short and what specifically constituted ‘midnight’. In the end, he settled on the Empyreal Echo. While still rather uncertain, at least there was a portion of it that was permanent, lowering the cost of skills above Legendary by 20%.
It was still a rather niche thing as he supposed there weren't that many people on the battlefield even capable of using something on that level, and there was also the matter of how destructive the spell would be. Nonetheless, a 3% chance across over three million soldiers was still a lot, and could occasionally turn the tide.
As he instructed Myra and Iccor, Asher, too, observed extensively the changes on the frontline--how quickly the soldiers fell and how quickly they were replaced, the average strength of the opposing soldier, their speed, their apparent ‘wit’... he couldn’t discern much, in the end. Everything was beyond just ‘chaotic’, bordering the realm of indecipherable.
A bolt of lightning descended abruptly next to him, kicking up a storm of dust for a moment and coating him in dry soil. If by sheer accident, his eyes managed to identify precisely who cast it--he could hardly discern anything past a fading silhouette fluttering in the distance, the haze of warmth causing the shape to bend and break. Just like this side, ‘the others’, too, had the massive rear support--platoons of mages roaming the backline, firing both offensive and supportive spells.
Asher occasionally saw the friendlies pass by, oft in groups of four to five with at least two well-armored knights escorting them. It was somewhat less fantastical than the few times he’d ‘cosplayed’ a mage--they weren’t firing spells off like bullets, and their spells didn’t directly home in on a target, and it looked like even casting something as ‘simple’ as an ordinary fireball drained them.
It answered at least one of the questions he was having--why weren't mages absolutely dominating the battlefield via a deluge of highly destructive spells? The answer? They couldn't. At least not from the ones Asher had seen. Chances were that there likely were mages capable of precisely that, but either they were holding each other back and fighting in the sky among the other flurry of battles, or they were being held in reserve and as a 'last resort' for one reason or another.
Whichever the case was, Asher was doubly happy over it. He could barely devise any strategy taking into account just the sheer number of ‘ordinary’ soldiers, if he had to take into account the variables of highly destructive mages, he may as well have capitulated and used the Scroll to teleport out. The world paused once again and before he could even see the choices, let alone make one, Qyne abruptly appeared in front of him, wings aflutter. Her arms were crossed across her chest and her expression, though lacking the previous levels of disdain, was still rather dismissive.
“... what?” he asked her as she remained silent for quite some time.
“What what? Can’t I just come here and take in your unparalleled talent?”
“No. So, spill it.”
“I want to make a bet with you.”
“No.”
“What? Why not?! It will be good for you!”
“From the bottom of my heart, and I cannot stress this enough," he said. "There is a higher chance of me shitting liquid gold than of a bet with you being in some way, shape or form good for me."
“Humph, how would you even know if you don’t ask what the bet is?!” she seemed peeved and hurried.
“Oh, I don’t know. You hate my guts. Your mother hates my guts. I’m in possession of something she is very desperate to get back. You got kicked out of your house. You see the retrieval of the ring as a potential to go back in her good graces. Geez, I sure do wonder why you’d suddenly and for absolutely no reason suggest a bet?”
“... hah. Just admit that you are a coward! No need to come up with these excuses!”
“Alright, I’m a coward. There. Can you go now? You’re ruining my already foul mood.”
“...” she didn’t say anything else, simply staring daggers at him. Asher had no intention of playing along--he was already fighting for his life, again, and had no extra room for unfair challenges.
He’d also realized that the Ring was a good bargaining chip--it was clear that both Qyne and her mother really wanted it back. Should there ever come a point in the future where he either outgrows it or is in desperate need of help more so than the Ring, it wouldn't be a bad thing to trade. But that would still simply be a last resort.
Of the three choices, only one interested him--and interested him plenty, at that.
General’s Chosen [Epic]
Effect: Select a soldier of your choice and make them your personal Knight, modifying their stats. Your Knights will be entirely immune to Fear, Seduction, and Illusions, as well as the sub-elements.
Damage Bonus: 80%
Defense Bonus: 100%
Health Bonus: 400%
Attack Speed Bonus: 50%
Health Regeneration Bonus: 100%
Passive Skills: Lord’s Shield, Lord’s Steward, Noble Sacrifice
Max Knights: 0/2
Level: 1/3
Cooldown: 3 minutes